Maintaining IT infrastructures with iPhone.

When you manage the IT needs of Fortune 500 companies, mobility, flexibility, and reliability are key. That’s why the IT pros at World Wide Technology rely on iPhone to communicate, coordinate, and maintain network infrastructures in the field.

The St. Louis, Missouri–based company was founded in 1990 and has since grown to become one of the largest IT providers. Today it has offices around the world, managing IT and supply chain solutions for businesses of all types. And nearly all of its 1200-plus employees use iPhone.

“The iPhone is a rock-solid business productivity tool,” says WWT’s president and cofounder Jim Kavanaugh. “It’s always on, it always works, it’s always there. It’s phenomenal for collaborative operations and lets us administer IT services without a computer.”

Mobile IT with iPhone

The iPhone is a crucial part of daily operations at WWT. “I depend on the iPhone to do almost everything,” says Jason Campanga, Virtualization Practice Director with WWT. “I can log in to my desktop in the office, launch an application to demonstrate something to a customer, send email, take conference calls, even troubleshoot and repair network equipment.”

And with iPhone, WWT techs are able to monitor and maintain network infrastructures on the go. “With the high-resolution screen on the iPhone 4, you can view a full desktop,” says Campanga. “We use iPhone to log in and launch an infrastructure management client. I can screen share with senior architects and lead them through the challenges they’re facing. Being able to do that anywhere — without a computer — is a major benefit to us. We can respond to customer needs much faster and solve problems on the go.”

Troubleshooting with FaceTime

Remote login and desktop sharing can solve many problems, but sometimes you need face-to- face interaction to set things straight. WWT techs use FaceTime on the iPhone to collaborate with users and resolve IT issues. “Many of our customers have the iPhone, and with the FaceTime app they have video conferencing functionality right in their hands,” says Andrew Denny, IT End User Computing Administrator with WWT. “Many have used FaceTime while building hardware systems to show our support people what they’re doing.”

The WWT sales force also uses digital conferencing tools like Cisco WebEx to attend meetings and view presentations. “The iPhone’s capability for collaboration is revolutionary,” says Denny. “It’s changed the way we do our jobs on a daily basis.”

Seamless integration

Bringing new mobile devices online can often be troublesome for IT staffers. With the iPhone, device setup time at World Wide Technology has been drastically slashed. “We use the iPhone Configuration Utility to build profiles that give our end users all the settings they need to connect to email, Wi-Fi, and VPN,” says Denny. “When an iPhone arrives, users can start it up and use it within minutes. That’s saved us a tremendous amount of time.”

Built-in Microsoft Exchange support also makes incorporating iPhone into a diverse IT environment a snap. “The integration with our current Exchange system is seamless,” says Denny. “The out-of-the-box functionality negates the need for any kind of third-party management console. The iPhone just works with Exchange.”

Of course, iPhone can do more in a business environment. “With the iPhone, users get basic functions like email, contacts, calendars, web access,” says Denny. “But it goes above and beyond that — there are apps for the iPhone that replace long-standing applications they’ve used on their PCs.

The new standard

“World Wide Technology is at the epicenter of technology in the enterprise business world,” says Denny. “It’s our job to understand how devices are going to answer our customers’ needs. We believe the iPhone is the industry leader in mobile handheld devices.”

“There are so many things our people are able to do with iPhone that they simply weren’t able to do before,” says Kavanaugh. “iPhone is changing the way we do business, the speed with which we do business. It’s a key part of our infrastructure, an indispensable part of our toolkit.”

Company Snapshot

Global IT provider for Fortune 500 companies and government organizations

“iPhone is changing the way we do business, the speed with which we do business. It’s a key part of our infrastructure, an indispensable part of our toolkit.”

Jim Kavanaugh, President and Cofounder, World Wide Technology

“The iPhone meets all of World Wide Technology’s security concerns, including the ability to remote wipe the device. On-device encryption and a lot of our VPN requirements are just the standard out-of-the-box functionality.”

Andrew Denny, IT End User Computing Administrator, World Wide Technology